PHILADELPHIA — Two international students at a small Catholic college in Pennsylvania have sued the Trump administration over its cancellation of their ability to study in this country.

They asked the federal court to quickly issue a temporary restraining order to halt action against them, and assert that their capacity to pursue their education should be fully restored.

In separate lawsuits, the students at Gannon University in Erie, both from India, and one a few credits shy of graduation, claim that federal authorities wrongly canceled their status because of supposed "criminal activity."

Documents filed in the case show that each student pleaded guilty last year to disorderly conduct, resolved by the payment of $221 fines and court costs. Details of the incidents, resolved in Magisterial District Court in Erie, were not included in the lawsuits.

The legal action comes as President Donald Trump targets international students at American universities, raising immigration concerns and contentions on campuses in the Philadelphia region and across the country.

More than 1,400 students at 210 schools have had their visas revoked, according to a tracker maintained by Inside Higher Ed. That number increases by the day, and includes more than 50 students in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

"It's a terror tactic," said Philadelphia immigration attorney Christopher Casazza, of the firm Palladino, Isbell & Casazza LLC, who represents the Gannon students. "It's a way for the administration to force out immigrants because they're immigrants, and no other reason."

Trump has promised to mount the largest deportation campaign in American history, and that includes seeking the ouster of international students who have come here from around the world.

Federal agents have searched dorm rooms at Columbia University and seized a Tufts University student off a Massachusetts street in an arrest that neighbors said looked like a kidnapping. Haverford College and Bryn Mawr college have issued fresh guidance to students in case they are approached by ICE agents.

The Trump administration has not yet filed a response to the Gannon students' lawsuits. A hearing on the request for a restraining order is scheduled for later on Thursday.

Who are the two Gannon students?

Gannon University is comprised of two campuses, one in Erie and the other in Ruskin, Fla. The Pennsylvania campus is set in the heart of downtown, close to businesses and organizations that the school says provide students with hands-on learning experiences.

One suit was filed by Zeel Patel, who has been studying for a master's degree in Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods since August 2024 and plans to graduate in May 2026.

Now she is extremely upset and anxious, the suit stated, fearing she'll be arrested and detained by federal agents and that her huge financial investment in her education will be lost.

She alleges that the Department of Homeland Security unilaterally terminated her F-1 student status, along with that of many others, under the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, known as SEVIS.

That's a government database that tracks international students' compliance with their immigration status.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on April 8 unlawfully terminated Patel's SEVIS record, the suit alleges, stripping her of her ability to pursue her studies.

School Director of Global Support and Student Engagement Marilee Wilkosz emailed Patel that day, writing, "I am terribly sorry to inform you that this morning your record was marked as 'terminated.'" Wilosz urged Patel to find an attorney and warned, "You are potentially subject to arrest and detention by federal authorities."

The reason given for the government's termination was, "Individual identified in criminal records check and/or has had their VISA revoked."

In fact, the lawsuit said, Patel was in full compliance with the terms of her status.

The move appears to be designed, the suit said, into coercing students like her to abandon their studies and leave the country, what's known as "self-deportation."

"If ICE believes a student is deportable, it has the authority to initiate removal proceedings and make its case in court," the suit said. "However, it cannot misuse SEVIS to circumvent the law, strip students of status, and drive them out of the country without process."

The law says students can lose their status for "a crime of violence" in which a sentence of more than a year in prison could be imposed. But misdemeanor or summary offenses do not meet that threshold, the suit says.

Patel believes the revocation occurred due to her April 2024 guilty plea to disorderly conduct, which carries a potential maximum jail time of 90 days, less than the one-year minimum under which the law could apply.

The circumstances of the second case are nearly identical, except that the plaintiff is a male undergraduate student who has been here since 2022.

Vraj Patel has been working on a bachelor's degree in Information Systems, and if permitted to finish the current semester would be six credits shy of graduating.

He too alleges that the school notified him on April 7 that his SEVIS registration had been terminated, the reason given as his being identified "in criminal records check and/or has had their VISA revoked."

He believes that occurred due to his April 2024 guilty plea to disorderly conduct, for which he also paid $221.75 in fines and costs.

The students were specifically charged with disorderly conduct creating a hazardous or physically offensive condition. That charge can include assaults on the physical senses of the public, such as setting off a stink bomb or strewing garbage.

The international student situation in Pa., NJ

As of Thursday morning, more than 30 students in Pennsylvania have lost their ability to study in the United States, including 13 at Pennsylvania State University, seven at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, five at Gannon University, five at Temple University, three at the University of Pennsylvania, and three at the University of Pittsburgh.

Officials at Lehigh University said "a few" students had their visas revoked but did not provide a specific number.

At Penn State, Centre County District Attorney Bernie Cantorna told the Centre Daily Times that his office knows of 12 students whose visas were revoked due to retail theft.

Each was placed in a diversionary program and not convicted of any crimes. A 13th person had their visa revoked after being charged with driving under the influence, and that person participated in a program for first offenders, Cantorna said.

None had any prior criminal convictions, he told the newspaper, and most have already returned to their home countries.

In New Jersey, 24 students have lost their visas, including 12 at Rutgers University in New Brunswick and eight at Rowan University in Glassboro. Four international students at Montclair State University in Montclair had their visas rescinded, the student newspaper reported.

This week Bryn Mawr College sent guidance to help students and staff if they should be approached by ICE agents, instruction that mirrored that shared by Haverford College last week.

The school also warned that the Trump administration is working on a proposed travel ban that would create a three-tiered system of countries subject to visa restrictions or delays. As many as 43 countries could be included, The New York Times reported, including a "red" list whose citizens would be banned from coming to the U.S. — Afghanistan, Bhutan, Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen.

Immigration advocates said they expect the revocations to keep coming.

Some students who had visas revoked have been accused by the Trump administration of taking part in pro-Palestinian protests, though others appear not to have engaged in political activity. In many cases the reason for revocation is unknown.

In January, Trump issued an executive order to fight what his administration called "the explosion of anti-Semitism on our campuses and streets" that followed the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel.

That has set off a legal and ethical debate, with the Trump administration claiming some of the students support Hamas, the terrorist organization, while student-advocates say the president has trampled constitutional rights to free speech and assembly.

Several other lawsuits have been filed to have student visas reinstated, including one by the ACLU of New Hampshire and the firm of Shaheen & Gordon. They represent a Dartmouth College student who attorneys said never committed so much as a traffic violation nor participated in any protest.

The United States hosted an all-time high of more than 1.1 million international students during the 2023-24 academic year, with more than half coming from India and China.

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